How Ubuntu saved me a Bomb of money!
Posted by Dr Saurabh Bhatia on May 9th, 2008 
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Date: October 2001
Place: Meerut
Problem: Desktop hanging again and again after 5 mins from boot up
Details: Cyrix Machine, running Windows ME
Follow-Up: Complete breakdown
Post-Mortem: CPU fan malfunctioned. Complete burnout of the CPU.
Cost: Whoops!!!
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Date: May 2008
Place: Pune
Problem: Laptop hanging after 5-6 mins from boot up.
Details: Celeron Machine, running Ubuntu 8.04
Follow-Up: Machine said: Critical CPU temperature reached, 98 degrees, shutting down Now.
Post-Mortem: CPU fan malfunctioned. Ubuntu saved the machine by detecting high temperature and shutting it down.
Cost: Fan replacement only!!!
Note: I do not know if Windows XP/Vista have this feature of temperature detection or not, but any which way, I am grateful to Ubuntu.
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May 9th, 2008 at 9:34 am
I’ve never commented on a blog before, but in this case…
You’re talking about a hardware feature, not specifically a OS feature. It’s a most common feature on CPUs from the last five years.
But i really do love Ubuntu und Linux!
May 9th, 2008 at 11:10 am
Perhaps you are right
but as i said, i was not aware of it, having burnt my fingers earlier
May 9th, 2008 at 12:24 pm
This feature is usually on the motherboard which detects fan’s speed and CPU temp. In most motherboards, it the fan runs too slow it will generate a warning and in almost all motherboards computers shuts itself down when CPU temp ran too high.
May 9th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
This is not entirely true. The motherboard can only report the temperature of the processor and the speed/state of the fans. If the fans are malfunctioning, usually during boot it will warn you, but Windows XP does not have the same functionality as described above.
I work at a computer repair shop and, believe me, if it did have this functionality we wouldnt be so busy
May 9th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Jerad
From your comment it’s not clear to me whether Ubuntu had a hand in shutting down the PC or was it done under motherboard’s control.
So please clarify as to WHO shut down my comp and should we give credit to Ubuntu or not??
May 9th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
No nix system out of the box will monitor cpu temps you have to have lmsensors installed and configured for that. Thank your systems BIOs for that save. Most boards actually have software that monitors the motherboards temps and fan speeds and will shut down or warn you also, and believe me as much as I would rather be running fedora or kubuntu those utilities are easier to set up than lmsensors…
May 9th, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Sorry in previous post I meant to say that they have windows utilities that are easier to install than lmsensors that make it trivial in windows to have your pc shut down or warn you if you can’t navigate your systems bios
May 10th, 2008 at 4:14 am
Hello All
Thanks to all you guys, i have learnt an important thing.
And that is that i needed lm sensors.
So i have installed them now.
Ubuntu community is all right….